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Snapchats new Snap Store teases in-app commerce potential

Snap Inc. simply launched a merchandise store. The aim isn’t to make money yet, but it demonstrates the potential for an in-app commerce platform for other brands.

Today the company opened the Snap Store, which lives in the Snapchat app’s Discover section and lets you buy Snapchat merchandise, like a $20 Dancing Hot Dog Plushie or a $30 Dog Lens T-Shirt. You can scan the Snap Code below with the Snapchat camera to open the store and buy exclusive items that will only be available for a limited time. Click hereon mobile to open the in-app store.

This isn’t designed to be a serious revenue stream for Snap Inc ., though, despite it missing revenue targets last one-quarter. A Snapchat spokesperson dedicated no official comment, but told me this is something the company does for its community. Basically, it’s a way to drive brand allegiance, though it also earns Snap some free marketing as people wear the gear.

But if Snap can use its own Snap Store to demonstrate the potential for in-app e-commerce, it could potentially develop a real revenue stream around charging brands a cut of what they sell on Snapchat or getting them to buy ads promoting their stores.

Snapchat has previously sold a few items, like a Ghostface Chillah backpack and Dancing Hot Dog Halloween garb on Amazon, and it sold its Spectacles camera sunglasses through its Snap Bots, pop-up shops, retail partnerships and online. But now Snap is operating its own sales of the third-party manufactured merchandise, and appears to have pulled everything but Spectacles off of Amazon.

Users can visit the Snap Store’s site for the Snapcode( also below ), and subscribe when they first open the in-app store to see it pop up in the Discover section when new items become available. The next product drop-off happens on February 8th. We get tipped off to the store’s launch by reader Moshe Isaacian .